Faith Osier: The key to a better malaria vaccine
Faith Osier: Ufunguo wa chanjo bora ya malaria
Faith Osier is studying how humans acquire immunity to malaria and developing new malaria vaccines. Full bio
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in Africa every year,
Afrika kila mwaka,
about malaria vaccines.
kuhusu chanjo ya malaria.
are simply not good enough.
hazina ubora wa kutosha.
for 100 plus years.
miaka 100 na zaidi.
of what the parasite really looked like.
ya jinsi kimelea kinavyoonekana.
omiks --
the parasite really is.
kilivyo na utata.
has remained pretty rudimentary.
imebakia kuwa ya msingi.
we must go back to basics
tunalazimika kurudi kwenye misingi
handle this complexity.
shughulikia huu utata.
infected with malaria
malaria mara kwa mara
but they don't get ill.
lakini hawaumwi.
chetu tata,
who had overcome malaria
Waafrika walioishinda malaria
antibody response look like?"
unafananaje?"
on the radar for malaria vaccines.
kwenye rada ya chanjo ya malaria.
important parts of the parasite.
sehemu muhimu za kimelea.
a protein of interest,
alipotambua protini yenye umuhimu,
important for a vaccine
muhimu kwa chanjo
participants in a village in Africa,
300 kwenye kijiji cha Afrika,
would predict who got malaria
zingetabiri nani kapata malaria
a small number of proteins
namba ndogo ya protini
30 years of this type of research
miaka 30 ya aina hii ya tafiti
conducted over just three months.
liliyofanywa zaidi ya miezi mitatu tu.
in seven African countries,
kwenye nchi saba za Afrika,
and the variable intensity
na kiwango kinachotofautiana
to prioritize our parasite proteins,
kuipa kipaumbele protini za vimelea,
the malaria parasite on a chip.
kimelea cha malaria kwenye chenga.
and we're very proud of that.
na tuna fahari sana juu ya hilo.
on over 100 antibody responses.
ya zaidi ya majibu 100 ya kingamwili.
antibody response,
what might make a good malaria vaccine.
chanjo nzuri ya malaria.
do to the parasite.
inafanya kwenye kimelea.
Is there synergy?
Kuna ushirikiano?
a bit of one antibody won't be enough.
na moja kingamwili kidogo haitoshi.
concentrations of antibodies
vya juu vya kingamwili
kill the parasite in multiple ways,
huua kimelea kwa njia nyingi,
may not adequately reflect reality.
inaweza isionyeshe ukweli wa kutosha.
in greater definition,
kwa maelezo zaidi,
overcome this complexity.
inashinda utata huu.
the breakthroughs that we need
mafanikio tunayohitaji
through vaccination.
kupitia chanjo.
are we actually to a malaria vaccine?
kiasi gani kupata chanjo cha malaria?
at the beginning of a process
tu wa mchakato huu
what we need to put in the vaccine
tunahitaji kuweka kwenye chanjo
but we're getting there.
lakini tunaelekea huko.
tell me what does it stand for
niambie inasimama kwa nini
Malaria Antigen Research Partnership.
Antijeni za Malaria Kusini-Kusini.
is referring to us in Africa,
inarejea kwa sisi wa Afrika,
in collaboration,
kwa ushirikiano,
and looking to Europe,
na kuangalia kwa Ulaya,
some strength within Africa.
nguvu fulani ndani ya Afrika.
to develop a malaria vaccine,
kuendeleza chanjo ya malaria,
Kiafrika,
of disease in Africa is high,
ugonjwa Afrika uko juu,
to push the boundaries
kusukuma mipaka
mentioned this a little bit,
umeongelea hili kidogo,
if there were a malaria vaccine?
kama kutakua na chanjo ya malaria?
half a million lives every year.
milioni ya maisha kila mwaka.
12 billion US dollars a year.
dola za Kimarekani bilioni 12 kwa mwaka.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Faith Osier - Infectious disease doctorFaith Osier is studying how humans acquire immunity to malaria and developing new malaria vaccines.
Why you should listen
Faith Osier works to understand how humans acquire immunity to malaria and intends to use this knowledge to design highly effective vaccines. Her studies focus on infections with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which leads to nearly half a million deaths in Africa each year. She demonstrated that Kenyan children who did not get sick after a malaria infection had high levels of antibodies against combinations of specific proteins found within the parasite. Subsequently, her studies in immune African adults revealed that there were in fact many additional parasite proteins that could be considered for malaria vaccines. To verify her results, she designed a massive study involving children and adults from 15 different geographical locations in Africa. She designed KILchip, a custom protein microarray that enabled her team to analyze antibody responses to more than 100 intentionally selected malaria proteins in these human blood samples. Her research group also studies the mechanisms by which these antibodies kill malaria parasites.
Osier is a Professor of Malaria Immunology in the Nuffield Deptartment of Medicine at the University of Oxford, UK. She has two research laboratories: one in the Biosciences Deptartment of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, and the other in the Parasitology Deptartment of Heidelberg University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. She has won multiple awards for her work including the Royal Society Pfizer Award (UK) and the prestigious Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She holds major research grants from the Wellcome Trust, is an MRC African Research Leader and an EDCTP Senior Fellow. She is also a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, an advisor to the Executive Committee of the Federation of African Immunological Societies and the vice-president/president-elect of the International Union of Immunological Societies. She was named a TED Fellow in 2018. She is passionate about training African scientists to excel and deliver the medical interventions that are urgently needed on the continent.
Faith Osier | Speaker | TED.com